Name: Work Smarter, Not Harder: Data Reuse in SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design
Uploaded: 2026-04-15T18:30:04.470Z
Duration: 45 min 27 s
Description: Work Smarter, Not Harder: Data Reuse in SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design

Transcript for "Work Smarter, Not Harder: Data Reuse in SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design": Alright. Well, welcome to our webinar, Work Smarter, Not Harder, Data Reuse and Electrical Design. And thanks everyone for showing up today and taking time out of your busy day to focus on some helpful features in a great program. My name is Jason Stadel. I'm an application engineer here at GoEngineer specializing in SOLIDWORKS Electrical. Coming at you from Elizabeth, Colorado, in an elevation of sixty five seventy, so 6,570 feet, pretty high up there. And we're about an hour South of Denver. I live with my wife Emily son, Jack, and two Labradoodles named Ralphie and Fonzie. So let's just jump right into it. So why do we reuse data? So reusing data in SOLIDWORKS Electrical helps you work faster and smarter. So instead of building everything from scratch, you can copy circuits, reuse symbols, or use macros and Excel to make quick changes. It saves time, reduces mistakes, and keeps your projects consistent, especially when you're working with a team across multiple sites. So the more you reuse your data in electrical, the more you can focus on designing rather than redoing. So we're gonna have a little help here from couple of characters we have, the data reuser. And then also, we might see some of his allies and enemies along the way. So how can we reuse data in SOLIDWORKS Electrical? There's a few of them we're gonna talk about today. We can copy and paste entire parts and circuits. We can create macros and reuse common configurations across projects. We could also do Excel imports, part imports, and we could also do add to library. And then also, we can reuse, reports and also templates as well. So let's go ahead and start with copy and paste. So copy and paste in electrical is a simple but powerful way to save time and reduce errors. Instead of redrawing the same circuit over and over again, we could duplicate what's already working. So whether that's a motor circuit or a control circuit and a title block, it helps us stay consistent across projects. And how do we use copy and paste? So we can do a standard copy and paste, which is basically, you know, just a control c and a control b. We could do a copy with insertion point, and then we can also do a paste special. So let's go ahead and see it in action. Oh, gotta do my tab. Here we go. So first thing I'm gonna do here is just a quick copy and paste. So all I need to do is highlight my parts, wires, and connectors and everything or anything you want in electrical. And then I'll do just a quick control c and control d, and there we go. Let's go ahead and place them. And you see the actual parts are gonna update with the marks. And then also, I can just, you know, run a number of new wires, and then everything will update there as well. So just really quickly, you know, you can duplicate anything you want in electrical. And then also have it update as well. So it's not just a straight copy and paste. You're actually making, you know, your your your parts, your smart parts increment as well. So I've drawn this connector a few times, so it's at x 16. We'll normally probably be at x three. And you could also do a copy with insertion point, and then also a paste special as well. So a copy with insertion point is really nice because, you know, sometimes you're putting, like, making sure terminals go on wires or just getting something you're right in that little grid space you wanna pop it in. So what we could do is just right click, do a copy with insertion point. Go ahead and grab what you need, and then you're gonna pick your insertion point where you wanna where you wanna place it. And here, I'm gonna do a paste special. So I'll just go ahead and hit the paste special button, or it's a control shift v as well. And then just go ahead and place it, and we'll get a nice menu pop up. This is a very nice tool in electrical. You'll also see it with the macros too as we go. So, basically, what I could do here is I could as as I'm pasting, I can I can change my data? So I could change whether, like, a connector creates a new mark, whether a function or location creates a new mark. So let's say I don't wanna put this in this location, I wanna put it at a different location. I can go ahead and just pick the location I wanna place it in. Do the same thing with functions as well, or I can just rename the function completely, and it'll create it for me. I could change my harness if I want to with this one. This one is a harness, so that's why that's popping up. So let's say I want that in h six. There we go. And I can also change my parts as well. This one, you actually have to have the part in the project. You can't come in here and say I want a new, you know, a b b part or Steiner Electric, whatever. You actually have to have it in the project, but you can associate. So it's an associate rather than create new. You can also change your wire styles. I'll go ahead and change my wire style to something else here. Let's change them to something we can see. There we go. Different color. 110 volt DC. Looks good to me. And then I'll go ahead and hit finish. And there we go. We got different part numbers. We got different colored wires. And then again, I could just come in and, rename my wires here or renumber my wires. Very, advantageous to do this. So, we can also copy and paste parts. So we could save a lot of time by copying and pasting entire parts, along with the circuit and terminal information. So basically, we find a similar part in the library, and we can copy that and then change it, which seems pretty simple, but it's really powerful. You know, you can make a bunch of parts at once, just copy one, then paste a bunch of them. So this helps standardize design, reduce errors, and also leverage what we already have, in our library. So let's go ahead and see it in action. Here we go. So, all you do is go to my library, and I'm gonna go to my manufacturer parts. And all I really need to do is just, find the part I wanna copy. We'll just go to a connector here. And let's say I wanna copy this, this connector right here from dynamic connectors. All I need to do is just do a copy and a paste, and there it is right there. I can just go to the properties, and I could change this to whatever I want. New connector. I could change, you know, anything in here. I could put a put an external ID, add a datasheet, change my mark route. I can add a line diagram or symbol to it, change the height. All that good stuff is available. And then I can also come in here if I wanna change the, circuits as well. But let's go ahead and hit okay. And there we go. There's our new part ready to go. And let's say you have a part that's in here. Maybe you got it from the content portal or somebody just made a bunch of parts but never actually put the circuiting information in. There's a pretty easy way to copy and paste circuits, which I really like. So this is, like a six pin terminal. So I need six pins, please. That's what we're gonna do. So I'm gonna grab, terminals from another part. So if I look at this part, go to the properties, you'll see this has just six terminals, name one, two, three, four, five, six. That works for me. I like it. I'm gonna right click. I'm gonna do, copy circuits, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna paste this into the part. Just do a paste circuits, and there we go. And now just like magic, I could open the part properties for this, and there they are. Terminals 123456. So, Terminals 123456. So, really easy to do. And, you know, if I had a whole bunch of them at once, I could just go down the line and just hit paste circuit paste circuit. Just makes it super easy for you. That's what it's all about. It's reusing data and making things easy. Okay. So, next thing we're gonna talk about is add to library to duplicate and change objects. So, the add to library feature, is all about working smarter. Whether you're dealing with the schematic symbol, a title block, or black boxes, this tool lets you capture and reuse your best work. For symbols, it stand standardizes your design language. For title block, It ensures consistency and professionalism. And for black boxes, it keeps, complex functions simple and repeatable. So we're gonna talk about, add the library with symbols. We're going to basically have a standardized common symbols that we're gonna use. This saves time, you know, reusing assets and also helps you streamline your designs a little bit as well. And also speeds up collaboration too because when you're making Symbol in your database, you're making it for everybody. So it's a group effort. Black boxes are perfect example for representing, you know, like, drives controllers or just things you're making in house that maybe don't have a a regular symbol that that you have. And we can use add to libraries to copy, black boxes, which makes it pretty easy to, to simply take something that's already in there, that you create on your schematic and then just put it in your database for everybody to use. And then dynamic symbols are the same way. So with dynamic symbols, you're you're taking, a part and creating a symbol directly from the part. And then once we put that partner schematic, we can save that to our database by using the add to library as well. And then title blocks, you know, it's really helpful to use add to library title blocks if you just need to make a quick change to your title block, and then save it as a new one. You know, one thing with electrical use in a shared database is you'd most of the time, you do not want to change what's in the database. You want to either copy something or make something completely new. That way, you know, your your past efforts won't have the new changes. Okay. So let's go ahead and see it in action. So, I have this symbol right here. It's just, for open power contacts. So let's say I need to change this symbol. I don't have it in my database. Maybe I need to close contact right here. What I could do is just right click symbol, hit add the library from the symbol, menu right here, and I'm gonna create a new symbol. Here we go. And I could change this to whatever I want. We'll say here we go. Just add a number to it. So this is gonna be three, open, one, close. Go. And I could change the description as well if I wanted to. So the reference here, that's fine. So I'm just gonna keep it. The description will change it. There we go. Okay. So all I really wanna do here is just, change this to, close symbol on the bottom. Just put a line through it representing that it's closed. And then I wanna change the circuits as well, because those are gonna be closed too. So just go to my properties here, and I'll just change that from open to close. There we go. Make sure these are same. Should follow. Yep. And then you should be open, which they are. And there we go. And you just go ahead and close that out. Save the changes. And then I could just go ahead and replace this with that new symbol. And there it is. And then I wanna change my part as well because that part, would have you know, this one has all open power contacts. So I need to find a part that actually has one closed as well, which I do just happen to have in here. Look at that. Let me go ahead and delete that one. And there we go. Okay. And then I'm also going to add this black box library. So, you know, the black boxes are very useful, like I said, for, you know, creating, you know, one off parts or something you're making in house. Some of it doesn't have a normal symbol. But sometimes we do want to, add these to our library so we can reuse them. So all I need to do is right click. Same thing, add the library from the symbol. And then this is gonna ask you if you want either create a new symbol or if you want to, update the symbol. I wanna create a new one, and it's gonna ask me if I wanna save this as a multiwire symbol or a black box symbol. If I save it as a multiwire symbol, it's just gonna be a regular schematic symbol, and I'm not gonna be able to push the update black box button, which is really useful if we need to add more wires later down the road. So we'll save it as a black box. Okay. And now that's in the library. And I can make changes to it and then go ahead and replace it if I need to. And everybody can use it. And then it's the same with the dynamic connector. You know, this was just made using the dynamic connector. Just insert connector, you know, just using the same menu here. So nothing too crazy there. But, yeah, once you put it in, you can quickly you know, if you wanna keep it and reuse it, have it in your database, again, add to library, save it out as the connector that you wanna save. And now it's in the library. And then you can also do the same thing with, title blocks, which is really useful. So if I needed to add, like, rows to this title block, but I wanna keep everything else the same, I could just right click where in the document panel on a page and then hit add the library for my title blocks. I'll go ahead and create a new title box. Now I can, you know, add rows. You know, if I need to put some notes on here or change the change some of the attributes in here, I can definitely do that. And then I can go ahead and, save this to the library and then replace this if I need to. Right. So, let's keep going with macros. So, why do we use macros in electrical? You know, obviously, to save time, to build a library, also to ensure design consistency, and it's a drag and drop situation. So with electrical, I usually recommend, you know, new users to kinda look at what kinda what you're doing in your schematic and just think, am I ever gonna reuse this circuit? Am I ever gonna reuse this particular symbol with this part setup? If you think you might reuse it just one more time, I would definitely make a macro of it. It's just gonna make things a lot easier. And, you know, if if you can with electrical, you know, the goal kinda as I see it, it's just to kind of get to a point where the majority of your work in electrical and the schematic is is just dragging and dropping from the macros menu. And you'll kinda see why here in a second. So, basically, with macros, it's really straightforward and really efficient. You start by selecting a group of components like a relay circuit or full circuit of anything, and then you basically just highlight it and drag and drop it into your macros box. And you can place it when you want it when when you wanna reuse it, you could bring it out and you can have an insertion point in there and place it wherever you need it. You can also edit them, very easily. So you can copy and paste your macro and then edit the new one, make as many as you want with different iterations. And then they're also organized within libraries as well, which we'll see here in a second. So let's go ahead and look at it. So I have this motor circuit right here, and I want to actually save this as a macro. So all I'm gonna do is gonna go ahead and highlight what I wanna save. And then I'm just gonna grab just part of the geometry. Let's see. I've done it a couple of times already, but that's okay. And I'm just gonna grab, you know, like, the wire or, maybe part of the symbol. Just has to be on some of the geometry. I'm gonna drag and drop it right into my motor starter, box over here. Then go ahead and name it. Excuse me. I can add a description to it, whatever I want. And then I can just go ahead and reuse it. So I'm just gonna go and drag and drop it right from that box, place it right onto those wires, and then we get a familiar screen, the paste special. So just like with the paste special, when we did the copy and paste, it's gonna do the exact same thing. So here I can create new marks or keep existing marks for everything. I could change locations of things or functions. I can change this to a completely new cable if I wanted to. Let's see if I have one. There we go. Change that to w seven. And, I could change my wires, my components. I could put a different terminal strip on here if I need to. Let's see. We'll make all of these wires instead of three phase wires. We'll make them all control wires. Let's try that. Say a 110 control. There we go. And now those are all gonna show up as control wires. I'll hit finish, and there we go. So there's our w seven cable, and these are all control wires just like you said. And now I could come in here and number my new wires, and they're gonna follow everything we're we're doing there. So let's say I like this macro, but I wanna change it a little bit. Maybe I don't want that breaker in there. Maybe I don't want the terminal strip. Just something like that. What I could do is just go ahead and quickly edit this macro just by hitting the edit macro button. And let's say, I don't want the breaker there. Delete that completely. Move my wires around. There we go. Looks good. And then I can go ahead and just save this. Close it out. And now I can go ahead and put that in, and there's the changes just like that. So really easy to do, saves you a whole lot of time. And you can also do entire pages as macros as well. So these are called project macros. So let's say I like this page and I think I'm gonna use this page in another project. What I'm gonna do is just right click on the document and I'm gonna hit create project macro. And we'll just call this motor edge. Here we go. Hit okay. And then in this project or any new project, I can just right click, hit insert project macro, and then go ahead and place this. Click on the page. There it is. And now and the same deal. I still have my pay special menu. I can go ahead and change, you know, all of the cables, all the parts, all the wires, whatever I need to do. But now this is a brand new page, and I could share this between projects. So this is in my database. Anybody can use it. The only caveat here is it's not gonna go between, ANSI and ISO. So you're gonna have a separate macro library for ANSI and ISO, which is a good thing. And you can also do entire lie or entire, excuse me, entire books as well. So if I right click my document book, I can create the project macro from there. And we'll just call this motor book. And then I can just go to my project and insert the macro, and then go ahead and find that. Right there. And finish. And there is my book. Same deal. So just imagine this is another project. You know, you can have full just sections of your schematic that you reuse, from day to day on other projects just with a couple button clicks just to fully insert them, and not only have them, you know, paste in, but they're also pasting in with the correct marks as well, and also building up your your bill of materials. So and also all of your reports as well. So it's it's pretty powerful thing. And if I need to manage any of these, I do have my macro manager in the library. And in here, I can copy and paste macros. This is one I made for cable design. Some people like the the old school way to show cables. So I can just drag and drop that in whenever I want. You know, you can do connection labels, line diagrams. What you can't do with macros is, use them on two d footprints. You can make a page macro out of a two d footprint, but, you can't drag and drop your two d footprints into the macro box. Very helpful. Very useful. Okay. So let's talk about importing data. So importing data into electrical, can start with a data sheet from a manufacturer. From there, we can map fields to the correct properties, basically in an Excel spreadsheet, in the, part library. So we'll just use the import tool to do that. It's a fast and accurate way to build your parts without manual entry. So, you know, if you got a 100 parts to build, you have all your data sheets ready to go, I know you do a lot of copying and pasting, into Excel, to create all of our parts all at once, which, you know, keeps data consistent, reduces errors, and also quickly builds your libraries, which is really nice. Let's go ahead and take a look. So, to do this, you're gonna go to your library tab, and you're gonna hit your manufacturer part manager. And you'll see this little button right here to import. So there's a drop down there. If you're doing this for the first time, I highly recommend just hitting create new file for import. So if you're on an older version of electrical, you might not have this template. But if you're, like, 2024 and later, you do have this part template, which is really handy. So you go ahead and create this. You just hit okay, and it'll create a spreadsheet for you. I already have it made, so I'm not gonna hit okay. But this is the spreadsheet it creates. So I'm gonna hit import Excel file, and I get an Excel file ready to go. So I can go ahead and edit this, hit the little pencil button there. That's gonna bring up Excel, and now I can use this just like any other Excel file. There's a few things that are mandatory or required. You obviously need a part number. You need a manufacturer. You also need a class, a library, and a type. That's really the only things that you need to create the parts, but you can put in whatever you want. Article number, you could put in external IDs. You can whether or not you want to exclude it from the bill of materials. You know, you could change your mark roots as well, put in descriptions and translatable data, user data supplier information, what you're actually using. Like, what do you what kind of symbol do you wanna use? And then also put in the size or frequency. Don't wanna make anybody dizzy, so I'll go slow here. But this is my favorite part of it is the terminals. So this sheet lets you create parts with terminals, and it actually works really well. So, basically, what you do is you put in your circuit type, and you'll see that, on this file, I have three parts, but I'm using up to row 15. That's because I have it set to use one line per circuit right here. And this is really important. This is the one that works the best. There's three different ways to do this. There's, one line per circuit, one line per terminal, and then one that's kind of a combination of both. So the one line per circuit definitely works the best with this. So if I go in here and add terminals, you know, I can add terminals from a list here, but each circuit or terminal, in this case, needs a circuit type. Okay. So you have to have a circuit type. You don't need a circuit group unless you wanna put in there. You could put any of this stuff in there, but all you need is a circuit type and a terminal mark. And, honestly, I don't even think you need the terminal mark. You might just be able to do it with circuit type. I haven't tried. But you wanna put terminal mark in here. It's just gonna make your your job a lot easier. So I have these separated, for the first part. The first part has five circuits just with one terminal each on each circuit. The second one has three circuits with one terminal each. The last one has one circuit, but it has five terminals on that circuit. So I have them separated with a semicolon, and we'll see why in a second here. So I'll just go ahead and close this out. I'm sure I'll save it. And now you'll see that I have this terminal separator right here. So you could tell Electrical, do I wanna separate those terminals with a semicolon, a pipe, a line breaker, a colon? I just like the semicolon just because you just hit one key. And your semicolon works. So the next step here is super easy. You just hit compare, and this is gonna tell you if it's working or not. So, you know, it's easy to make errors in here and leave things out. So this is nice. Before you import anything at all, it's telling you that, hey. These parts are gonna work. There's no errors. Everything looks good. So as soon as you see this, you can hit import. If I had some errors, I would just go back to the spreadsheet and fix. Maybe I have a missing manufacturer or missing class or maybe my circuits don't match up with the terminals. So this is really helpful there. So I'll go ahead and hit my import button, and there we go. It made three manufacturer parts for me. So data import five, six, and seven. So I can go ahead and look at those. We'll just do a search, And there they are. So here's the first one I did, properties. Look at my circuits. And there's the five circuits. The second one has three circuits, and then the last one is going to have one circuit with five terminals. So just imagine you have 50 parts, you need to make circuits. You have the information in spreadsheets or data sheets. How easy is that just to go ahead and place them in the importer and, let electrical do the work for you. That's kinda the theme of this webinar is letting electrical do the work for you, and that's that's what we wanna do. So let's continue with duplicating and customizing reports. The report wizard down on the bottom right there. So, duplicating and customizing reports lets you build exactly what you need without reinventing the wheel. So whether it's parts list, wire table, terminal report, you can copy a default, tweak it to fit what you need, and then, use it. And you can tailor just a default report, make it into a custom report, and, go from there. So saves time by duplicating. You know, you can tell SOLIDWORKS Electrical what you wanna see on these reports, and you're not starting from a blank page. You're starting from data that you know works. Let's go ahead and check that. So if I wanna duplicate a report, I need to go into my electrical project tab and then hit the under button for or the down arrow, and then I'm gonna go to reports. And now I can duplicate the report that I want. So let's say we want, yeah, this one right here. It says data reuse. So I can go ahead and duplicate it. There we go. And it's automatically opening for me. So I can go ahead and go to my general and change this to whatever I want. Two. And we'll put a description in here. Group by manufacturer, and we'll put with article add the article number. So I'll say with article. Alright. And I'll just go to my columns, and I'll just go ahead and add a column here. We'll do the article number. Here we go. Add it over here. And there we go. I'll hit apply, and now I can use this report. So that wasn't a drastic change, but, you know, you don't really need to make drastic changes with these because you get quite a few, reports right off the bat with electrical and, you know, just duplicating something you already have and adding a few, rows or columns. I'm sorry. Columns is gonna make all the difference in the world here. And it's SQL. So, you know, with reports, you can basically do whatever you want. So, so if I go ahead and hit add, I'll see my report in here. There it is. Data reuse two. And there it is. They have my article number as along with everything else. I don't really have many article numbers on here, but if there were article numbers in those parts, they would show up. Alright. So the next thing we're gonna talk about is, duplicating and customizing templates. So, templates and electrical, they'll let you start every project with a solid foundation. By duplicating and customizing a template, you can preload the right title box, reports, and settings. This is gonna save time and ensure consistency from the very first click. Let's see it in action. What's my favorite character, the d sub man? Alright. So, you know, I have a a a project open here, and that's fine. I can have the project open. We'll just have to tweak it a little bit before we save the template. But let's say I I really like this project. You know, maybe I made a few changes along the way as I was going through the project. Maybe I changed some units down here in my title box. Maybe I changed some title box. You know, maybe I, changed some fonts and all that good stuff. And maybe I need to make a couple more tweaks in here. I can come over and change whatever I need to change. Maybe I want my symbol color when they're connected to the purple instead of red. Maybe I want my, attributes for my mark to always be, you know, point one two five instead of point one. Maybe I want my formula for my origin destination to be something different, like, from to, here. It'll look a little bit different than it is now. I'm gonna go ahead and change that. It's basically anything I wanted to change. Maybe I want all of my title blocks to be b with column for everything. Let's say b with rows. That's fine. So now all of these are going to have my rows in them. So I got everything I like. I'm gonna hit apply. Update everything. That looks good. We'll hit okay. And then I don't really want all of this data in here. So I can go ahead and delete it. You know, make sure I I do wanna have this project duplicated first because, you know, it will save everything I do. So, maybe I'll duplicate the project before I do anything else here. Let's go ahead and close it. Go to my projects here, and this one, I think. Yep. So let's go ahead and duplicate it. There we go. It's good. Now I don't have to worry about any changes I want. So I'm gonna go ahead and name this, let's say new template. Not necessary, but it's going to, show me exactly the file that I'm editing here just for my sanity. Sure. I do wanna open it. Alright. Cool. So there's my document books. Alright. So what I can do here maybe I don't need two document books, so I'll delete these. Maybe I don't need two macro pages. And then I can come in here and just open up and just delete all the data I don't want because this is what is going to start all of the projects I'm gonna use with this template. And there we go. Go ahead and close this out now. So I have my template exactly the way I want it. So now I just come in here, I highlight it, and I hit save as template. And we'll just call this, webinar template. There we go. And now, yeah, it asks you if you wanna open up the folder. It's just gonna show you where all those folders are. Not very helpful. But if you needed to to send this to somebody else, it is helpful. So I can just grab that template now, and I can email it to another, electrical user who is outside of our database, and then they can use that. So now if I do a new project, I can go ahead and change this to webinar template. Hit okay. And just like magic, my new template is ready to go with all of those changes that we made. So it makes it super easy. So, to sum it all up here, you know, data reuse and electrical isn't just about speed. It's also about accuracy or accuracy, consistency, and, just making things look and work in the best way we possibly can. Whether you're building your symbol library, reusing circuit macros, customized reports, or creating project templates, each step helps you streamline your workflow and eliminate repetitive tasks. Mastering these tools, you know, you'll not only work smarter, but everything will be easier. And the nice part about it is the more you use these tools for data reuse, you know, the less you're gonna have to do it in the future. So this makes things super easy, and that's what it's all about. Does anybody have any questions? So why does the wire manager sometimes get messy when importing macros to new or old projects. Okay. So when you import a project, or import a macro, basically so anything I do. So if I have a macro here, let's say this one right there. I'll just open this up. Okay. So if I save, let's say, these right here. Okay. I'll go ahead and grab this, save this to my macros. When I use this in another project, it is going to put in the wire styles if I don't have them. That's just what it does. There's really no way around that because when I import this so if I do a new project, I'll just use the regular ANSI template. And if I bring this in, now these wire styles are going to show up in my wire style. There's just really no way around it. They're they're just going to. And we do have you know, when when you're actually importing wire styles, I have seen some of our customers that just basically draw out all of their wires on one page. That way they can quickly import wires into other templates, using the macros. So that's why it does that. That make sense? Any other questions? So, we do have a button at the top of your screen that says upcoming webinars, and this will show you all of our upcoming webinars that we have in the next, couple of months. So if there's anything that interests you there, go ahead and hit the register and then hop on the webinar. Some really great stuff coming up. There's some electrical stuff as well coming up too. So, yeah, if you wanna register, just go ahead and hit the register button. And if there's no more questions, we'll wrap up. I would like to thank everybody for taking time out of their busy schedule. I know it's hard to fit an hour into any of our busy days, but we really do appreciate you taking the time to to join us for these. So, yeah, if there's no questions, we'll, we'll see you on the next one. Thank you very much.